Global business leaders suspend ties with Saudi Arabia

London – Global business leaders are reassessing their ties with Saudi Arabia, stoking pressure on the Gulf kingdom to explain what happened to a dissident writer who disappeared after visiting its consulate in Istanbul.

British billionaire Richard Branson on Friday suspended business links with Saudi Arabia, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he might not attend a major investment conference in the country this month amid reports that Jamal Khashoggi may have been killed at the Saudi consulate in Turkey’s financial center.

“What has reportedly happened in Turkey around the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, if proved true, would clearly change the ability of any of us in the West to do business with the Saudi government,” Branson said in a statement.

Turkey’s government has told U.S. officials it has audio and video proof that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Washington Post reported Friday.

The newspaper, for which Khashoggi is a columnist, cited anonymous officials as saying the recordings show a Saudi security team detained the writer when he went to the consulate on Oct. 2 to pick up a document for his upcoming wedding.

The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm the report and Turkish officials would not comment.

Meanwhile, a delegation from Saudi Arabia arrived in Turkey on Friday as part of an investigation into the writer’s disappearance, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Branson, founder of Virgin Group, says he will suspend his role as director in two tourism projects in Saudi Arabia while the investigation takes place. He also is putting on hold discussions about a proposed Saudi investment in space companies Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit.

Saudi Arabia is facing increasing international pressure to clarify what happened to Khashoggi with U.S. President Donald Trump and British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt among those demanding answers.

Khosrowshahi is scheduled to speak at the Future Investment Initiative conference, and event loosely nicknamed the “Davos of the Desert” that takes place Oct. 23-25 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

“I’m very troubled by the reports to date about Jamal Khashoggi,” Khosrowshahi said. “We are following the situation closely, and unless a substantially different set of facts emerges, I won’t be attending the FII conference in Riyadh.”

The decision could put Khosrowshahi and Uber in an awkward spot because Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund owns about a 5.6 percent stake in the privately held ride-hailing app. The fund invested $3.5 billion 2016 as Uber was growing quickly.

“I am planning on going at this point,” he told broadcaster CNBC. “If more information comes out and changes, we could look at that.”

Joe Kaeser, the president and CEO of German industrial giant Siemens AG, also still plans to attend for now.

The Financial Times, which is listed as a media partner to the event, announced it would no longer be doing so. Bloomberg also said it would no longer serve as a media partner, thought it planned to cover the event.

CNN canceled its partnership, and said its anchors and reporters would no longer moderate panels. The New York Times and its business columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin similarly pulled out of the event. CNBC also said Friday it would not participate.